Aparna Kadari, CISM, CISA
Aparna Kadari, CISM, CISA, is a cybersecurity leader serving as Director of Cybersecurity at Delviom, LLC, where she has been in her role for approximately one year. She manages cybersecurity strategy, engineering, operations, and risk across complex federal and commercial environments. Her work focuses on translating client needs into clear, systemic, and actionable outcomes ranging from project plans and vulnerability remediation efforts to patching programs and cyber training initiatives for federal leadership. She is deeply engaged in both strategic planning and day-to-day execution, ensuring security programs are practical, measurable, and aligned to business continuity and mission outcomes. Her leadership approach is grounded in operational clarity, resilience, and enabling security that supports, rather than slows, the business.
With a career rooted in hands-on execution, Aparna describes herself as an operator at heart. She began her professional journey in data entry and progressively advanced through IT project management, technical management, production support, and large-scale program management before transitioning into cybersecurity operations and leadership. Over time, she built and led engineering and security operations teams, modernized legacy environments, and helped organizations evolve toward multi-cloud architectures while maintaining stability and reducing operational fatigue caused by constant rotational demands. She has managed enterprise-scale budgets of up to $110 million with exceptional precision, maintaining variances under 0.1%, and is known for delivering disciplined execution at scale while driving efficiency, continuity, and measurable impact.
Earlier in her career, Aparna expanded her expertise across infrastructure, endpoint security, cloud transformation, and enterprise program delivery, steadily growing into senior leadership roles where she influenced both strategy and execution. She has led major modernization initiatives, Zero Trust adoption, automation-driven operations improvements, and enterprise risk programs across highly regulated environments. Beyond her corporate responsibilities, she is an active mentor and community leader through organizations such as Women in Technology (WIT), and she has been recognized as an OnCon Icon Top 50 Information Security Professional. She holds an MBA from Fairleigh Dickinson University and continues to champion resilient, human-centered cybersecurity leadership that blends technical depth with empathy, operational excellence, and long-term strategic vision.
• ITIL
• Master's Certificate, International Business
• Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
• Certified Information Security Manager (CISM)
• YB Chavan College - BS, Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Fairleigh Dickinson University - MBA
• OnCon Icon Top 50 Information Security Professional Award
• Community Service Award
• 2021 Winner - Fearless Leader
• 2020 Finalist, Women in Housing -The Community Leadership Award
• 21st Annual Women in Technology Leadership Award Finalist
• The NEW Power Women of Tech
• Speaking Events
• Literary Publication
• PMI local chapters
• ISACA
• Executive Women's Forum
• Home Owners Association - Stonegate Community
• Women in Technology (WIT)
• ASCEND
• Code.Loudoun
• Girls in Technology
• St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital
• Resolve (infertility support)
• Mentoring women in technology in DMV area through Executive Women's Forum
• Published four anthologies of poems for charity
• Especially childhood cancer
What do you attribute your success to?
There are many inspirations in my life. My mom was my first mentor. I owe my success to all the leaders and mentors who helped me navigate through difficult situations. I've been fortunate to have amazing women and men as mentors throughout my career, and I'm grateful for their guidance. One person I'd especially like to highlight is Stephen Brannon, one of my bosses at Fannie Mae, who made a significant impact on my journey.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice that I ever received is, in order to be noticed, you need to have an edge and be different. There are so many people out there, but this advice stood out because it also includes that we need to create our own success criteria. We cannot be part of the crowd.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Keep learning new skills, because with AI and quantum computing, life is going to change at a nanosecond speed. Especially for women, there are so many roles that they play in a given day, but keep learning new skills and fail forward. No matter what, keep moving. This may not be just for cybersecurity, but anywhere for women in technology. Specifically for women in cyber, because it could be a stressful area depending on which area in cyber you are, you just need to keep moving forward.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
There is a lot of opportunity in cybersecurity. We do not have enough cyber professionals, let alone women in cyber. There are more jobs than people, and there's a real shortage. For anybody who is planning to enter cybersecurity, it would be amazing to learn on the job if they don't know what to do, and get all those relevant certifications. Keep expanding your portfolio, because there are so many specialties that you can have in cyber that you can accumulate to be more profitable in the market. If you're in cyber, make sure that you're translating it into a good lifestyle, getting the money that you deserve, and making sure you're providing for yourself and your families the way it should matter. There is the biggest opportunity in terms of not just livelihood, but also making this world a better place.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Let's start with personal life. Self-care is top-notch for me, because if I don't take care of myself, I won't be able to take care of my family. My mental well-being is of utmost priority, especially in recent times, and I have awareness of why it's so important. From a professional perspective, the top values that matter to me are work ethic, integrity, and productivity.